Film / Planet Terror

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Planet Terror is the more action-oriented half of Grindhouse. A 2007 Robert Rodriguez film in which a military transaction goes awry and an experimental poison gas is released on a small town in rural Texas, turning the unsuspecting civilians into bloodthirsty zombies. The only people who can stop them are a Go-Go-Dancer with a gun for a leg, her expert gunman ex-boyfriend, a pair of crazy babysitter twins, a shellshocked doctor, a Jerkass cop, a crusty sheriff, a scientist obsessed with testicles, and many other trailer-park freaks from deep in the Heart of Texas.

Humanity's last tropes...resting on a high-power machine gun are:

Adaptation Explanation Extrication: A weird case. An alternate cut of the film exists where Tony survives. The reason Dakota runs to the second helicopter is to ensure a seat for Tony. In the final cut, where he has died, she has no practical reason to run to the second helicopter.

Adrenaline Makeover: Dakota goes from meek nurse that suffers several agonizing indignities to a woman that uses a pistol-sized syringe launcher to kill a soldier.

Advertised Extra: Parodied. Bruce Willis is front and centre on the poster, despite having barely any screen time. This parodies a B-movie tradition of casting a big name in a small part and then hyping them up as if they were the star. Note that Willis's character Muldoon rarely shares the frame with another actor, giving the impression that his shots were all filmed separately in one go.

After the End: The epilogue... and it's a big "maybe". On one hand, there's a lot of survivors and life is pretty idyllic for them. On the other hand, there are a lot of zombies (but if they decompose as fast as the soldiers did, it's a matter of time).

Ambiguously Trained: El Wray is an expert with guns and blades and is the best fighter of the whole group, but the Sheriff refuses to give him a gun because of his criminal shenanigans in the time he'd met him. Once the plot re-starts after apologizing for the missing reel, El Wray has given the sheriff his secret past (but the audience doesn't gets to hear it) and the sheriff is incredibly awed by him ("I knew your name was 'El Wray', but I didn't knew you were that 'El Wray'",) hands him a firearm and lets him carry on. His interaction with the colonel afterwards implies that Wray was part of some kind of black-ops division or at least saw military service.

An Arm and a Leg: Cherry loses a leg pretty early on. Part of her own Adrenaline Makeover is actively weaponizing the improvized prosthetic legs she's given throughout the film.

Muldoon says he delivered one to Osama bin Laden, along with a shot to the chest. Back in 2007, it was kinda funny; in 2011, it became really funny because that's how bin Laden really died.

Brain Food: The zombie-like mutants eat Fergie's brain, prompting the gag, "Looks like we've got a no-brainer." Similarly, a repeated line throughout the film is "I'm gonna eat your brain and gain your knowledge," first said as a small boy is playing with his action figures, although by the time Josh Brolin starts saying it, it gets creepy/hilarious.

Bury Your Gays: Tammi is Dakota's lesbian lover on the sly, and ends up getting eaten by zombies (first casualty on the film, even!)

Chekhov's Skill: Cherry's impressive flexibility, among other "useless skills" of hers. Lampshaded early on by Dakota saying (while she's talking to Cherry) lthat her dad once told her everything anybody learnt throughout his life would always have a moment where it came useful.

Combat Stilettos: Cherry, on her good leg. She stabs a zombie's eye off with it at one point.

Exact Words: J.T. mentions that never will his brother share his BBQ recipe, even if he is dying in his brother's arms. When they are both mortally wounded, J.T. shares his recipe and his brother dies in his arms.

Godzilla Threshold: In the wake of the sicko outbreak, the police force breaks out the "All or Nothing" box, which involves giving everyone a badge, a gun, and a deputy rank. Though they still won't let El Wray use a gun.

Groin Attack: Abby seems fond of them, cutting off people's balls and keeping them in a jar. And the rapist soldier's testicles actually melt off.

Her Boyfriend's Jacket: Cherry wears El Wray's leather jacket, much to his chagrin since she left him and he was searching for it for months.

Homage: The action may be all Robert Rodriguez, but the horror suspense elements, down to the synthesizer music, is pure John Carpenter.

Infant Immortality: Averted, in one of the film's few genuinely horrific scenes. Robert Rodriguez said he used his own kid, Rebel, as Tony because he didn't want to 'kill' anyone else's kid. He also made a less-violent cut of the film where Tony survives the movie for Rebel to watch.

Insistent Terminology: Cherry doesn't like being called a "stripper", she refers to herself as a "go-go dancer".

"What did I tell you, Tony? Don't point the gun at yourself. Didn't I tell you that?"

The Jaywalking Dead: A small caravan of vehicles rips through several zombies, and one unfortunate dog. Also, as a possible subversion of the trope, earlier in the film, El Wray swerves to avoid a man he doesn't know is a zombie, ultimately crashing his car.

Leg Cannon: Cherry Darling had her leg eaten by zombies, and replaced it with an M-4 assault rifle, which she used to kick much ass. And then later, she had that replaced with a full-on minigun. It's a bit ambiguous how she fires it, though, since we never see her reaching down to pull a trigger.

Lost in Transmission: The audience sees "MISSING REEL." During the missing reel, it's implied, we'd have gotten to see Rose McGowan totally naked, plus the entire plot surrounding Wray's mysterious origins would have been explained. And when the film comes back, everything's on fire, and we'll never know why. Possibly the best cut in movie history.

There's a Meta-Gag in there as well. A presumed urban legend (re-told in the novel Fight Club) is that older movies would have their nude scenes cut shorter and shorter as projectionists removed a few choice frames for their collection. Notably, all of the sexier bits seem a lot more grainy, as if they've been watched more than the rest of the film.

Ludicrous Gibs: When people are shot in this movie, they emit absolutely ridiculous explosions of blood.

Male Gaze: In Cherry Darling's go-go dance. Up until the film "melts" and the scene becomes missing, the sex scene with El Wray had plenty of titillation, too.

My God, What Have I Done?: Subverted with Dakota after she gives her son a loaded gun to defend himself with, only to have him shoot himself in the head. She then starts cradling the kill and when her husband shows up, she shrieks blame at him for it.

Noodle Incident: The "missing reel." Cut to the diner on fire. Sheriff Hague had been shot. Dakota and her father, the babysitters, the go-go dancing club owner and some of the dancers somehow made it there. And El Wray has told them his Mysterious Past, which somehow has made Hague become incredibly respectful of him ("I knew you were "El Wray", but I didn't thought you were that "El Wray"") and he has no problem giving him a gun afterwards ("Give him a gun. Give him all the guns.")

Reckless Gun Usage: Dr. Dakota Block gives a gun to her child, when she leaves him alone in a car. He shoots himself in the face (accidentally or not) within a few seconds of her leaving the car.

Rocket Jump: Cherry does this with her grenade launcher leg. One of the only non-videogame characters to perform this move.

Rule of Cool: Zombie films are a dime a plenty, but the moment you have stuff like people mowing them down with a drive-by riding a motorcycle custom-made by Jesse James himself in thanks for an incredibly awesome BBQ meal and the girl on the back using a machine-gun that is an improvised prosthetic leg to do said shooting, you know that you're on this territory.

Running Gag: "Best barbecue in Texas" by J.T. (it swings in and out of being a funny gag because of his feud with Hague).

Dr. Felix: Viral infections. They came pouring in. Some are rapidly developing coliform lesions... highly contagious. What do you think?

Dr. William Block: Self preservation comes to mind.

Dr. Felix: Yeah, let's get out of here.

Secret Ingredient: Throughout the first half of the film, JT tries to find the perfect BBQ sauce recipe. Before he tastes a sample, it gets mixed with some of his blood, leading him to correctly deduce from it that all that was missing was a little bit of salt (since human blood tastes salty).

There Is No Kill Like Over Kill: The Rapist (played by Tarantino) tries to have his way with Cherry. He is smashed over the head with a table leg, impaled in the eye by the leg's broken end, has his privates melt off from the infection taking over him, has a syringe launched into his other eye, melts into an inhuman monster, pukes up his guts, then finally is shot in the crotch with a grenade launcher. Good grief.

Your Makeup Is Running: Dakota Block's mascara is runny for a good chunk of the film. Justified by her massive crying (because of her leaving her abusive husband, said husband sticking her hands with anesthetic-filled needles, breaking her wrist, her son accidentally blowing his brains out...)

Zombie Apocalypse: Pretty much goes without saying that the gas spread throughout the atmosphere is bad news.

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